Riding Dirty

Just got back from a 500 mile road trip in my week old C7. I've had a chance to spend some time and several hundred miles with the car and am still very impressed. The wife and I made a trip from Long Island New York to southern Delaware, to visit my mother. It's about 5 hours each way. Having traded in a C6 for a C7 base 2LT A8, that is my frame of reference for comparison. I always felt the C6 was a very reasonable riding travel car. I had changed to Firestone wide oval tires on the C6. The stock Good Years road very hard and you felt every pimple in the road to an excessive degree. The C7 is a dramatic difference in ride comfort. The C7 is just so much smoother and soaks up bumps without harshness. I often found myself going faster than I had thought. Our trip included varied road surface conditions. Part of the drive included a stretch on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. It's a heavily traveled road with lot's of patches and uneven surfaces. The C7 suspension handled it very well. It absorbed bumps well and maintained a firm composure. A road like that can cause a car to bounce around and bottom out suspensions. Other roads roads included different surface types, Asphalt and concrete. For the most part the noise level was very good, a big improvement over the C6. The surface made a big difference though. I found found smooth asphalt to be amazingly quiet. Concrete was the loudest, with most of the noise at higher speeds. 60 mph+. Although, noise levels are very reasonable, I'm thinking that a bit of sound deadening would still be a benefit. I'll have to start the process of researching what to use. Most of the noise seems to be coming from the rear wheels, so , I'll probably start with the area behind the seats and hatch area. The engine ran great. I love the smooth acceleration and power delivery. I've had the car in sport mode since I picked it up at the dealer. Merging onto highways, passing cars or just cruising feel effortless. I also have found the A8 transmission to be very smooth, to the point where I find I tend to not notice it. This is on a base car and transmission. I do not know how the differences in the Z51 package affect the transmission performance. If I'm not mistaken the Z51 includes an electronic limited slip differential and the gearing is different.

After a week and half I'm am still loving this car. The improvements over the C6 are dramatic. For me the car does what I need to do very well. It's a performance car and daily driver when needed and a highway cruiser able to soak up many miles in very good comfort when needed.

DCortez

500 miles is a warm up. Head west, young man!

Did a road trip back in March, loved it and can't wait for the next one!

alamo1974

Went to Branson, MO in sept. and New Orleans in March - have over 4,000 miles on my 2016 and love the ride.

Hoonose

http://www.southerncarparts.com/corv...em-p-6838.html

How was the seat comfort?

DCortez

Wife and I were completely comfortable. I'm 5' 7", about 175. Went from Houston to Maine and a ton of places in between.

Aside from the factory installed window wind noise, the road noise wasn't noticeable. Of course we had the radio cranked up.

Riding Dirty

I actually didn't think about the seats, which is probably a good thing. My attention wasn't drawn to the seat. If it had been uncomfortable, I would have thought about them.

Have you used block-it? What was your impression?

Rebel Yell

Very good comparison. My C6 had magnetic ride, and I find my C7 without rides as good or better in some instances. We're planning an approximately 5K ride in Sept. Can't wait.

L8ter

I have the block-it's in with Llyoid mats over them. Inexpensive, easy, and efficient.

UsernameProtected

My test results for block-it mats. I also installed Lloyd's Luxe mats, but I don't think they reduced the noise enough to try to quantify.

KemahGT

So glad to hear that there are at least a few on this forum that are driving their cars!

Enjoy!

LimeRock

Bought mine in October with 13K. Turned 20 last night on our way home form a three hour drive in the sun.

Vetteman Jack

Sounds like you will have many more enjoyable miles in the car.

dfettero

Did the 650 mile trip from Stafford, VA to the Factory in Bowling Green, KY last week and got 31.9 MPG. Drove most of the way on I-64 at 70-75 MPH.


Very comfortable seats. Made only 1 stop for gas and lunch.


Oh, and it rained hard for the last 2 hrs of the trip. The car got dirty but did not melt!

4thC4at60

Me too!

I put about 1500 miles a month on my C7. Would be more but I split the DD with a 28-year-old Ferrari.

aerobaticflyer

Ah Stafford.......my former home town!

traderfjp

I agree. I drove mine from West Palm Beach back to Long Island. Lots of fun. I also got 36mpg in eco mode and 7th gear. Once you change the tires the car rides even smoother.